The Jubilee is a seed entrusted to the future

The closing of the Holy Door in St Peter's Basilica by Leo XIV on Epiphany Day had the tone of essential gestures that speak for themselves. Not a concluding act, but a passage. The liturgy, the procession, the silence that accompanied the closing of the door restored the profound sense of the Jubilee: a time given to put God back at the centre and to set the people on their way. In the celebration, the Pope recalled the symbolism of the light guiding the steps of the Magi, linking it to the pilgrimage experienced in recent months: men and women from all over the world, different in language, culture, history, but united by the desire to cross a threshold.

The Holy Door, opened at the beginning of the Jubilee Year, was a sign of welcome and mercy, but also of choice. Going through it meant recognising a need for conversion, entrusting one's frailties to God, accepting that one is not enough for oneself. In the Epiphany Mass, Pope Leo XIV recalled that the Jubilee was not a time separated from history, but immersed in the reality of a world marked by conflicts, inequalities, fears. It is precisely for this reason that the Holy Door has taken on an even stronger value: to indicate a direction when the path appears uncertain, to offer guidance when confusion prevails.

With that sober and solemn gesture, the Jubilee closes. And the balance is not only in the numbers, but in the quality of the questions that have emerged and in the thirst for meaning that has crossed this year.

The Jubilee took place while the world remained wounded by wars, forced migrations, and growing poverty. In this context, the Holy Door remained open as a sign of a mercy that does not retreat. Pope Leo XIV, in his Jubilee Magisterium, insisted on a concrete faith, capable of becoming historical responsibility, lived fraternity, attention to the least. He repeatedly recalled the need to "disarm the words in order to disarm the Earth", indicating a path that starts from language and the gaze in order to impact history.

This Jubilee is in a line of profound continuity with the pontificate of Pope Francis. It was Francis who recalled that "the name of God is mercy" and spoke of a world torn apart by a "third world war". Leo XIV took up this legacy, translating it into a call to never separate mercy from justice and peace.